@bigbear said in FusionPBX benefits:

If you have designs on managing multiple tenants from a single server it really is a no brainer to check this project out. You really do need the training and to make a long term commitment to learning the product.

This is something I totally agree with.

@scottalanmiller said in How do ISPs get business?:

@bigbear said in How do ISPs get business?:

@scottalanmiller said in How do ISPs get business?:

@bigbear said in How do ISPs get business?:

@markferron said in How do ISPs get business?:

@dashrender said in How do ISPs get business?:

I was reading JB's and other talking about getting 100 Mb/s + for around $30-40/month. Others are talking about getting 1 Gb/s for $70/m.

Here in Nebraska in Cox land, 150/20 Mb/s cost $80/m for residential.
100/20 for business costs $350/m

Here in the town I'm in there is only Windstream. 15 Mb/s for $60 a month, ridiculous. Basically government blessed robbery.
The town over I had TruVista and they charged $10/month for the Wi-Fi feature on their modem/router/AP combos. We obviously opted out, but they still charged us $5/month for the modem rental along with $90/month with the fees for 50 Mb/s. These companies make they're money back on the hardware "rental" fees alone.

Windstream is a great example of a company who constantly buys up competitors, even larger ones like Nuvox. In a grander scheme they were acquired by Mcleoud or Paetec, cant remember anymore.

They aren't good about restructuring their networks afterwards like cable operators are. They just keep everything in place.

Paetec. Paetec changed their name to Windstream to hide because they had built such a bad reputation and burned their own brand to the ground.

I think PAETEC bought McLeod and Allworx then Windstream bought PAETEC.

That's what Paetec wanted people to think. Paetec was the buyer, though. That's why it was a big deal that they took on the name of the company that they bought, rather than keeping the name of the parent.

This happens often enough. Avago did this with Broadcom. There were rumors we were going to do a reverse acquisition of our old parent company a while back.

@jaredbusch said in IT Support: $ fee's charged:

Is there a minimum time increment that is billed?

15 minutes.

I'm assuming this is remote work. We were always 1 hour minimum for onsite, 15 minutes for a remote.

Patch is here:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208315

@fateknollogee said in Server 2008 w Hyper-V infrastructure: needs upgrades!!:

@tim_g said in Server 2008 w Hyper-V infrastructure: needs upgrades!!:

This was on a MD1000, very old.

MD1000...old school! I know those units. I've got 2 of them in storage gathering dust!

I have 2x LSI 620J. I might just connect it with LSI 9207E HBA

If you don't mind the 3 gbps bus, the MD1000s are amazing.

@scottalanmiller said in Membership tracking software?:

SuiteCRM is decent, but not really made for this. But should work.

Right.

@bigbear said in TurnkeyInternet VPS / Dedicated Server Deal worth it?:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1345438

Old review but...

I can't comment on that yet. I've only had it for a day. But I have unlimited bandwidth and it's not a reseller account. So far no down time that I noticed.

I've contacted support a few times already, though, with getting my ISO uploaded. Support seemed very helpful and responsive in my experience. This was after I paid.

@jaredbusch said in HAProxy not workign with SELinux enforcing:

Apparently i never setup this server to auto update...

Ayup.....

[root@exchangeproxy ~]# dnf -y update Last metadata expiration check: 0:08:45 ago on Mon 27 Nov 2017 06:44:36 PM CST. Dependencies resolved. ================================================================================================================================== Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================================================================== <snip> Upgrading: selinux-policy noarch 3.13.1-260.14.fc26 updates 508 k selinux-policy-targeted noarch 3.13.1-260.14.fc26 updates 9.4 M <snip> Transaction Summary ================================================================================================================================== Install 3 Packages Upgrade 43 Packages Remove 3 Packages

Until they pay me to be on call I only carry my phone. I do try and avoid planning weekend adventures far from cell service but they do happen.

Pretty much I came back and checked my data from my iphone (which was cool). Wish they had an actual ios app.

It's still an expense for us. The only sticking point is the AD Connect which of course is awesome.

@bnrstnr
Thanks. My Bad. Eyes must have been goofy... 🙂

@jaredbusch I just meant that @bigbear could upgrade his debian to 9 then do this if he wanted.

@jaredbusch said in How to change your user folder locations with Cinnamon or Gnome 3:

As someone upvoted this post recently, I thought I would circle back. I am using simlinks in all my Fedora systems now.

This just never worked exactly as advertised. It mostly worked, but never completely.

I also use symbolic link with Linux and Windows too. For Windows, it keeps me from messing with the default user shell folders / shell folders path or the need to move the locations. And with Linux, I don't have to mess with the user-dirs.dirs file.

Highfive is a great product. I helped a client demo it, but they decided they did not want to get into actual video conference meetings after using it for a few meetings.

@dashrender said in Trying to set up Hyper-V Server 2016, ripping my hair out:

I’m confused on the Hyper-v admin you made. Was it local on Hyper-v? If yes then how could any other computer log into itself as that user?

I chose option 3 from the sconfig menu ("add local administrator") and then for that I chose a domain user. Then, I was attempting to connect to my Hyper-V server through the Windows 10 Hyper-V Manager as that user.

@jimmy9008 said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@scottalanmiller said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@jimmy9008 said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@scottalanmiller said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@jimmy9008 said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@scottalanmiller said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@jimmy9008 said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@scottalanmiller said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

@jimmy9008 said in Helpdesk/Training Department:

Being able to charge for this means I can build the team faster to improve support. As we get more customers, the number of personnel will need to increase offering support... at cost. Currently, this is met with no charge to customers at all, and were just about able to make the finances work. However, It needs to be monetized to make it sustainable...

Do you think such a way is sensible?

Edited: to explain a little.

It is extremely hard to do in practice. If you really want to do this, the only way that I have seen it work is to offer phone support at one tier, email at another, etc.

Hard, nothing wrong with that. Worthwhile - yes. Worth being hard, yes. If were able to monetize some of the support, that will help financially - a lot actually.

But just to be clear... I mean hard in the "never seen it work, ever" sense. Support and SLAs are very tough things to put together. I can't even picture how it's possible to make it work.

Then, how do other companies stop support services for customers from burning through cash?

Single SLO / SLA level, not tiers that depend on intentionally lowering quality to lower tiers. Have you seen any support company with a model like this? This works for shipping and stuff with hardware, because you use cheaper shipping options to make the tiers. But for support, you can only make this work by ignoring customers to make them "suffer" for not paying for the better service.

A few, such as Bonitasoft, a BPM solution. They offer such a setup. I don't see a single SLO/SLA working - for our typical customer, the free tier will work. Say 70%. For the other 30% or so, I could picture a premium service, if offered, being accepted. If the only option was that service, paid, we would lose 70% of business.

How would the premium work? And don't say SLA, how will the helpdesk behave to make it work?

I could see the phone option like discussed working. For example, if free, you email and that goes in to something like Helpscout, and well respond as and when we can. Typically within a day (although, that information could be internal only). If paid, you get email/Helpscout, but also a phone number to get straight through to us, and a support desk member you've been assigned as a main point of contact, perhaps quarterly reviews to see how we can further help them etc...

That stuff I see work because you are given them solid options that don't require taking something away from other tiers to make it make sense.